…oooOOO-KWAN-OOOooo…
When Kwan woke up the next morning, to say he was confused wouldn't be doing it justice; the jock was flabbergasted, baffled, and absolutely bamboozled.
He could think of a few more synonyms, but those would do for now.
The initial source of his confusion wasn't Dash lying on the floor beside him, legs sprawled out and arms wrapped around a pillow. That was a usual sight.
No, it was the Latina lying to his left, mouth wide open and usually immaculate makeup smudged.
The fledgling journalist simply shrugged and sat up, slowly stretching out his aching muscles.
It wasn't until he caught sight of the head of black hair poking out from beneath Dash's sheets that it came back to him. Phantom. Scary lady. Right.
He groaned and rubbed at his tired eyes; it was way too early to be alive.
Kwan was just slipping back into the realm of dreams when a knock on the door startled him back to wakefulness. Argh.
Muttering some choice words under his breath he stumbled toward the door, seizing the handle and poking his head out, grimacing at the sudden light filling his vision.
Mrs. Baxter, her blonde hair drawn into a tight bun, lowered her hand from the door with a smile, "Good morning, Kwan." She laughed softly at his annoyed expression. "Or should I say afternoon?"
He grunted, turning around to glare at Dash's digital clock. Sure enough, it was indeed the afternoon. Twelve o' one, to be exact.
The tired teen turned back towards the woman with a sheepish smile, "Sorry, Mrs. Baxter." He floundered for an excuse before lamely settling on, "You know how hard it is for Dash to get to sleep."
Her smile drooped at the corners as she straightened the pearls at her neck, "Yes, I'm glad you're always there for him. He couldn't have found a better a friend."
Kwan nodded, "True, that."
She chuckled softly, her perfectly straight white teeth catching the light. "Well, there's cold cereal downstairs and you know where the bowls are. I hate to run out like this, especially when there's a guest—"
Multiple guests, actually. Kwan wisely decided to keep that little tidbit to himself, "Don't worry about it." He gestured at their surroundings with a lazy hand wave, "Your house is basically my second home."
Her smile sprang back into place as she reached over to affectionately rumple his behead, "Charlie's at work and I have a benefits lunch, but maybe we'll see you when we get back?"
Though he grinned and nodded at the prospect, Kwan knew that it wouldn't be happening. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter would be gone long into the night. Again.
Ever since he could remember they were always coming and going; never staying at the house for long. Dash hadn't exactly been neglected-they loved him too much for it to be neglect-but they also weren't very…present, in their son's life.
He waved a goodbye, waiting until the clack of her high heels on the hardwood was no longer audible before closing the door.
Turning back to the rooms snoozing occupants, he squatted next to Dash after deciding that Danny probably needed all the sleep he could get.
His best friend had always slept like a friggin' male model, blond hair resting on flawless skin and dark lashes gracing pale cheeks.
Even after getting diagnosed with insomnia the guy looked like a Greek statue; effortlessly flawless.
It annoyed the heck out of Kwan, which is why he found himself lightly slapping his best friend in the face. More of a love tap, really, but it was still effective.
Dash's eyes fluttered open as he sat up, daintily stretching like a slumbering princess finally awakened from her cursed nap.
Kwan resisted the urge to slap him again.
"Hey, Kwan." Dash muttered around his yawn, his rank morning breath killing a few of his friend's brain cells. At least the guy had one physical flaw.
"Morning, stinky. I'll leave the waking of Paulina to you."
The blond looked extremely confused until he caught sight of the Latina, curled up on some spare blankets.
"Right," The blond cursed, turning to glare at the black-haired lump in his bed that was Danny. "I forgot."
While Dash attempted to wake Paulina, Kwan moved towards the Fenton, eyes never leaving the mound of blankets. Gently pulling them back from the boy's face, he studied his features critically.
Thick brows, pale skin, sharp nose, a barely visible dusting of freckles…there was no doubt about it.
Danny Fenton was definitely Phantom.
Kwan cleared his throat, hoping that would be enough to wake the slumbering ghost boy.
Had tucker and Sam been there, they would have been able to tell him that their friend literally slept like the dead. However, they were not.
He didn't want to just, touch him. This was Phantom, the town hero, one of his real-life idols! There was no way he was going to slap him awake like he had Dash.
The jock probably would have stood there all day, playing out the different sides of his dilemma, if it hadn't been for the sudden rumbling of his stomach.
The thought of breakfast drove him to act, giving his hands a mind of their own as he gently shook Danny awake.
It quickly became apparent that his hesitance had been for nothing. As soon as his hands touched the sleeping boy's shoulders, there was a blur of motion and a stinging pain in his abdomen.
Kwan landed on Dash's makeshift floor-bed with a heavy thud, his hands clutching at his stomach as he heaved for breath.
Through the moisture blurring his eyes, spurred on more by the unexpectedness of the blow than from any actual pain, he saw Danny glaring at him.
The ghost boy's eyes weren't glowing green, nor his hair snow-white, but the stifling aura of power rolling off him was enough to make Kwan scoot backwards across the floor.
He could hardly believe that that was his classmate standing above him; why had they never seen this side of him before?
Just as he was considering begging for forgiveness, Danny suddenly sagged, his defensive posture leaking out of him. His eyes cleared and he was Fenton again, looking down in absolute horror at the teen he'd just decked.
"Oh my goodness!" He squawked, his voice an octave higher than it usually was as he limped across the floor towards the prone jock. "I'm so sorry. I should've warned you about waking me up last night.
Kwan waved his hand dismissively, ignoring the slight pain the motion caused him. "It's totally fine, I should've known better than to shake you like a maraca."
Dash popped into his line of sight, getting up in Danny's personal space with a raised fist. "What the heck was that, Fenton? You almost took out my best friend."
Kwan rolled his eyes at his theatrics, "I'm fine, Dash. He just took me by surprise."
"Sorry," Danny whispered softly, guilt in his blue eyes as he stared at the spot Kwan was still cradling.
"Seriously guys, I'm okay. No harm no foul, or whatever."
The ghost boy stretched out his hand towards him only to have Dash slap it away, "Don't you dare touch him!"
"Geez, Dash. He's just trying to help," Paulina spoke up from the behind them.
Danny jumped a little at her voice, then looked embarrassed for doing so. "She's right. I can numb it, if you want." He closed his fist, "But only if you're comfortable with that."
"No," Dash muttered darkly, his icy eyes shooting daggers at the Fenton.
"Sure, if it's not too much to ask." Kwan answered at the same time, elbowing his friend in the stomach.
Danny nodded, leaning close enough that he could lift the edge of the injured boy's rumpled shirt, "It might be a little cold at first."
When he placed his hand on Kwan's stomach the jock couldn't withhold his grunt of surprise. The kid's skin was freezing, and he hadn't even powered up yet.
The ghost boy scrunched his nose in concentration, his eyes glowing a faint blue.
For split second it felt as though his whole stomach was on fire, so cold that it burned. But then the feeling faded, leaving a numbing sensation where the other's fingers had touched.
"How does it feel?" He asked Kwan hesitantly, quickly withdrawing his hand as if Kwan were toxic.
Or maybe thought he himself was toxic.
Kwan hopped up to his feet, noting that he didn't feel any pain. He touched the spot, curious to see if there would a be layer of frost, but found his skin simply a little cool to the touch.
Danny sagged with relief, a small smile splitting his face, "That's a relief. I've never really tried that before on people who weren't, well, me."
"Wait, seriously?" Kwan fixed him with an incredulous stare, "You mean you've never used that on anyone?"
The ghost boy shifted uncomfortably under the jock's gaze, his hand snaking up to rub at the back of his neck, "No. Sorry, I should've double chec—"
There were practically stars in Kwan's eyes as he interrupted, "So cool, you're telling me I just got punched by Phantom and he used a new power on me?"
Dash scoffed, though there were the beginnings of a small smile on his face, "You absolute dork."
Danny looked like he wanted to turn invisible, which, Kwan supposed, was actually something the boy could do. "It's not really new, per say." He got up to his feet, giving the black-haired jock a concerned once over, "Are you sure you're okay?"
Kwan supressed the urge to roll his eyes for a second time and simply nodded.
The ghost boy sent gave him a forced smile, his face pale, "That's good. Um, not to be rude, but I'm going to fall."
And fall he did, crumpling to the floor like a marionette with cut strings. Dash, a fraction of a second faster than Kwan, grabbed him before he could make contact with the hard wood.
The blond looped his arms under Danny's own and held him up, scowling at him. He looked annoyed, hostile even, but Kwan could see the complicated layers of concern concealed in his features.
Kwan was of the opinion that Dash, much like Shr$k, was an onion.
"Open my closet, the crutches from my injury last season should be in there. Might have to adjust them a bit for…for Danny." The blonde's tongue seemed to hesitate over the name, as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
Kwan found the crutches and silently passed one to Paulina for her to adjust while he did the other, deciding not to speak after seeing the wrathful look on her face.
The Latina was an absolute monster in the morning if she hadn't consumed caffeine, to such an extent that the other A-Listers had begun to bring coffee to school for her, like sacrifices to some vengeful pagan god.
"Come on," Danny protested weakly from his place on the bed. "I don't need crutches. Besides," He crossed his arms over his bandaged chest. "They'll make people wonder what happened."
"You're literally the clumsiest person in the whole school," Kwan chuckled, passing him the newly sized crutch. "Consider it payback for punching me in the stomach."
The ghost boy sighed his acceptance, placing the metal contraption under his arm and watching Paulina position the other, "I guess if you put it that way."
Once they'd all taken a trip to the upstairs bathroom and found Danny some non-singed clothes to wear over his bandages, the four teens headed downstairs.
Dash deposited Danny at the bottom of the treacherous steps with a grunt, Kwan in tow with the crutches. "You need to eat more." The blond muttered, moving into the kitchen without a backwards glance.
Kwan grinned at Dash's back, knowing that's all the concern he was going to express for the remainder of the day.
With the injured teen safety seated on one of the bar stools, crutches within reach, they sat down for some breakfast.
"Vict, Lucky Ch rms, or Fro$ted Flakes?" Dash asked, plopping the bowls and boxes down on the counter.
Paulina ignored the cereal and instead stumbled over to Dash's coffee machine, croaking out a barely audible, "Caffeine."
Kwan's grin grew to Cheshire-like proportions when he saw Dash gently push the zombified Latina back towards her seat before turning on the machine himself, readying a brilliant pink mug.
On his right, Danny poured himself a mountain of cereal and began to devour it in massive bites. Kwan watched the boy shovel the food into his mouth with raised brows, absently wondering if his ghost half used up a lot of energy.
That would certainly explain where the calories were going, cause they definitely weren't ending up as fat.
When they were all seated, Paulina much perkier now that she was on her second cup of coffee, Kwan swallowed down his mouthful and phrased the question on everyone's minds, "What do we do now?"
After last night's drama, they'd simply decided to call it a night instead of planning, deciding that their brains would be a bit more productive after some sleep.
Danny pushed his now empty bowl to the side and crossed his arms, studying the marble countertop with a frown. "She wants me to hand myself over to her by next Friday night—"
"Which we're definitely not doing," Paulina interjected, cradling the mug like it was her first-born child. "So get that idea out of your head."
To Kwan's surprise Danny nodded in agreement, "If I surrender there's no guarantee she'll let them both go. She doesn't seem like the most…stable person. More likely than not she'd keep them as a way to make me complacent."
The Latina breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought you were going to pull a 'hero' and sacrifice yourself for the greater good or something."
Danny held a hand to his heart as if mortally offended by her comment, "Me? Self sacrificing?"
Kwan watched the two smile at each other in mild confusion. Since when where they on such friendly terms?
It's not like he was complaining, her not trying to tear him apart was a welcome change, but it was still odd to see Paulina playing nice with someone who wasn't Dash or himself.
Deciding that was an issue for another time, he cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the kitchen's occupants, "So how do you usually go about…"
How was he supposed to phrase it? 'Beating the bad guy' and 'saving the world' didn't seem to do it justice.
Danny sat up, absently rubbing as the gauze covering his arm, "Our first order of operations would be to find out where she is."
"Amity," Paulina supplied immediately, a thoughtful expression on her face. "The area code was the same as ours."
"Okay, that means—"
Dash cut Danny off, waving his spoon at him and dripping milk on the counter in the process, "Doesn't this seem too easy to any of you? I mean, she lays all her cards on the table, lets us see her area code when she could've easily hidden it, and gives us over a week to prepare." He shrugged, "Just seems fishy."
"What's fishy is that you just used the word' fishy' with a straight face," Paulina remarked with a half smile. "But you do have a point."
Danny nodded slowly, looking extremely tired despite it only being early afternoon, "It's most definitely a trap, but at least if we act beforehand she won't know when to expect us.
Dash nodded, looking satisfied by the answer.
"The sooner the better, right?" Kwan spoke around another bite of cereal, "The quicker we find out where she's keeping them the less time she has to plan."
"To start, we have to dig up some info on her, find out what her motivation is." He rolled his eyes, "Never thought I'd miss dealing with monologuing ghosts."
Paulina inhaled another sip of coffee, her eyebrows drawn into a grim line, "How do you usually find stuff like that out?"
Danny's expression darkened, his grip on the countertop tightening. "Tucker usually works some technologic magic."
The air seemed to stale as the room's three other occupants cast around for something to say, all of them coming up short.
Kwan could hardly believe that Tucker TF for 'Too Fine' Foley had been one of the primary individual's keeping the streets of Amity safe. And to think he'd bullied the guy in grade school, heck, even last year…
He sighed, straightening his back as he silently promised himself that, when they rescued Tucker (when, not if. He refused to think if), he'd apologize as soon as humanly possible.
Standing up, he moved over to the sink and placed his bowl in it, rinsing it out carefully before turning back to the bar, "Well, I don't have your best friend's aptitude for tech, but I might have the next best thing."
"What?" Paulina and Danny asked in unison, their eyes wide.
Kwan smirked at them at them, "Amity Park Public Library."
Sorry, just a short little update this time. Usually my chaps are around 5,000/6,000 words, but this one's gonna stay at 3,000.
I don't know about you guys, but my high school exams kind of killed me this term e_e which is why this update's so small. Hope your exams went better than mine did if you had any!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you all have such cool names :o (the-trash-prince, SofiPhan29, kimcat, Lala2003, Sixsamchaos, BG223, silvertabby23, Cyan Quartz, Zela Night, Stefunee Pylant, Luna Lillyth, Guest1, Guest2). I really appreciate it :)
(please tell me if there's any blatant mistakes)
Anywho, whaddya think? Anybody have a backstory for Idolon? cuz I most certainly do not. I have a general, vague, half baked idea. But that's all.
I tend to just throw twinkies at a mental plot dartboard and be like 'ah yes, that's what I'll write'
Ciao till next week,
~ASL